Waimate Civil Defence Emergency Management uses the OPTN Ltd text messaging service. This service allows Civil Defence to send weather warnings and emergency information to all subscribers.
The great advantage for this system is it allows Civil Defence to reach a large number of people very quickly with emergency notifications.
There is no cost for receiving the messages. To subscribe, text "OPTNWECD" to 2678 and the notifications will be delivered to the phone from which the text was sent - this is a free service.